Black boxes
Entrepreneur of the Week Jonathan Fabin # Post4
As a novice entrepreneur I wanted to “eat the world” to learn everything from everything, to be involved and active in every aspect of my business. This perception may be true when making a deal or two but as the number of deals increases, I found that the two hours I spent in the evening to get my first deal turned into 7-8 hours of searching, running brokers, contractors, inspectors, working with banks, accountants, title Etc. etc'.
If you read the introductory post, you must have read my "why". I will mention: I want to buy time. Time to spend with my family, time to take on challenges, time to hike, time to play sports, time to study and teach, time to reach peaks that other people do not reach.
So how the hell do I free up so much time if I deal in real estate most of the day? Am I playing my "why"?
When I started the activity with my local partner in Birmingham I knew exactly what I was bringing to the table and what I was looking for in a partner. I was looking for a person who would know how to manage the activity on the US side, creative, hungry to succeed, who would give me confidence in his work and that I would give him confidence in my work. I ended up looking for a person I could trust to run the field operation while I ran the business operation.
Knowing that I could trust a professional with common interests to mine simply doing what he did best gave me the freedom and time to empower the business and concentrate on my core business. In fact, an autonomous system was created here, a "black box" that works without my help. By the way, the feeling is mutual.
So what is a black box?
"Black box" is basically the aspiration to create automation in my business. Produce a system that functions without (or almost without) dependence on the entrepreneur who created it. If I can focus mainly on doing my area of expertise, I will be able to devote a great deal of time to topics that are not within my area of expertise. That way I can produce more "black boxes" and I will also have time for my "why".
Two principles guide me in creating black boxes:
1. Delegation - A guiding principle for all my activities is Am I the one who must perform the actions I do? Is it possible to delegate authority to other people? Can I use software that will make the job easier (QuickBooks, DocuSign, Monday)? I build the business in a scalable manner.
Other examples of this are:
* Working with experts - In general, when working with experts, the product is much higher quality, saves time and pays for itself financially.
* Creating the right and meaningful collaborations - the other side who works with me always has to fill in my gaps and give value that I may not know how to bring to the business (and vice versa). The reason for my significant growth today is entirely from the right collaboration I have created. This topic is so important that I even devoted my own post to it.
2. Long-term thinking - I invest a lot of energy now in creating a black box so that in the future I can enjoy automation. Therefore, I suggest doing things right for the first time. what does it mean? Let me give you an example: when I realized that my business was going to be based on investors, one of the important things I wanted to convey was credibility and seriousness towards the investor. I could write a general investment contract or download something generic from the internet. I chose to enlist the help of a well-known real estate mentor, a flip-flop real estate entrepreneur in the United States, an attorney by profession and an expert in this type of contract. I paid no small price for this professionalism. But the thought was ahead.
In conclusion
A black box is not easy to manufacture and does not have to be fully automatic from the start. It takes a lot of time of choosing the right people, investing money, choosing methods of action, running, testing, and perfecting. But the time I spend today creating such a box will pay for itself tomorrow, and by and large!
In the photo: Alon and I are creating automation.
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